


we'll be the hurricane

by kimaracretak



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Anxiety, Established Relationship, F/F, Female Friendship, Feywild, Outdoor Sex, trees that probably want to eat you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-24
Updated: 2017-02-24
Packaged: 2018-09-26 09:14:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9879509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimaracretak/pseuds/kimaracretak
Summary: (there's a shiver in the night / a longing for perfection): Keyleth can do blankets, and hugs, and light shows with her fire hands and gust cantrips. It's the making things better by talking that she isn't really good at, but it usually doesn't matter because that's not what Vex needs from her. Except maybe she does need that now, because everything's different in the Feywild, and Keyleth bites her lip and forces herself to knock before she can think any more about that.Or; Vex, Keyleth, and how the Feywild changes everything and nothingPart ofCritrole Femslash Fest 2k17





	

**Author's Note:**

> for the prompt _In a dark, dark wood there was a dark, dark house and in that dark, dark house I think we should get drunk and fool around. (I want dirt under my fingernails.)_
> 
> title from delain, 'the hurricane', summary quote from octavia sperati, 'without air (after)'

Despite everything, the Feywild seeps into the mansion. Scanlan has reasons why it shouldn't, rules about arcane magics and plane shifts and dimensions, but Keyleth just stares at him like he's a child, until he finally wanders off to bed in exasperation. She knows what nature's own magic feels like on the material plane, is adjusting to what it means in the Feywild, and she _knows_  they're not alone.

The others drift off to their rooms, to sleep, and Keyleth paces the mansion, drifts through every room with a window and watches the swirling purple outside refuse to give her a sign of anything solid to validate the nervous energy crackling over her skin.

She's not particularly surprised when her pacing takes her to Vex's room. Of all the others Vex is the one who seems affected by the Feywild the same way as Keyleth, the only other one to feel the overabundance of life and illusion take root and _pull_  and let herself follow.

Still she hesitates briefly before knocking. They're going to see Vex's father soon, after all, and she must surely have other things to do than help Keyleth untangle the bramble-knot of reckless magic and desire that's been spiralling further and further around her body the past few days.

 _Don't be silly,_ she scolds herself. _It's Vex. It's just Vex._ She's been sleeping in Vex's room more and more often since she died, needing the reassurance that now, whenever she opens her eyes to find Vex still and cold, her best friend needs nothing more than a blanket to be okay again.

Keyleth can do blankets, and hugs, and light shows with her fire hands and gust cantrips. It's the making things better by talking that she isn't really good at, but it usually doesn't matter because that's not what Vex needs from her.

Except maybe she does need that now, because everything's different in the Feywild, and Keyleth bites her lip and forces herself to knock before she can think any more about that.

Vex is standing in front of the mirror when she enters, hair curled and twisted up and armour shined to perfection. For a moment Keyleth is speechless, caught between admiration and longing, and then she sees the glimmer of tears making Vex's eyes unnaturally vibrant, and her heart twists in pain.

"Keyleth," Vex says, and her voice is small like it's been since they got to the Feywild. Too small for the woman that Keyleth knows she is. "Do you think I look — your family are royalty, do you think I look —"

"Beautiful," Keyleth says before she can stop herself, but for all the words are reflexive they are no less true.

Vex laughs, short and strangled. "That's sweet, darling, but it doesn't matter to my — to the people we're going to meet."

"It matters to me!" Keyleth protests, hands fluttering in front of her, before she realises how that must have sounded. "I mean, it's not the only thing, of course, because everything about you matters to me, you're smart and lovely and strong and brave and — and if they only care about one thing then they're terrible, you know?" She trails off uncertainly, uncomfortably aware that Vex doesn't usually let her get this far in her babbling before cutting her off.

This time Vex's laugh is genuine, if a little watery, and she pulls the pin from her hair with trembling fingers. It cascades down her shoulders in blue-black waves, and Keyleth wants to hug her, to bury her face in Vex's hair and stand between her and all the parts of Syngorn that ever hurt her just like Vex stands between Keyleth and all her bad thoughts that she sometimes has to say out loud just so she doesn't hurt anything.

She settles for running her fingers through Vex's hair instead, teasing out one of the owlbear feathers from where it was crumpled, smoothing it out and tucking it back behind Vex's ear. Anything, so long as Vex keeps smiling, or at least not crying.

"You know, Keyleth," Vex says, and she freezes, afraid she's done something wrong, made things worse. "For someone who thinks she never knows the right thing to say, you do always seem to get there, in the end."

"Oh," Keyleth says, unsure what to do with that. She offers a tentative smile of her own. "So ... okay? You're okay?" Her hand is still in Vex's hair, like it's forgotten how to move, but Vex isn't saying anything about it so maybe it really is okay

Vex's smile falters just slightly. "Better," she corrects. "Ask me again once we've seen the last of my father for a while."

"Sure," Keyleth says, and wonders if she sounds as relieved as she feels. "Do you, um. Wanna go for a walk or something? I know it's the Feywild and we have to be careful of, like the trees and the flowers and everything but it's always better to not go to bed on —"

"Keyleth." This time Vex does cut her off, reaching up to cover Keyleth's hand with her own and Keyleth swallows back a small noise of contentment. "I think that sounds like a wonderful idea, darling."

 

**

 

Breathing is easier outside the mansion, in the Feywild proper. Keyleth can feel it in her blood now, the strange magenta life pouring over her and filling her lungs like so much air. In the not-quite-twilight, not-quite time, she is brave enough to reach for Vex's hand, to kiss her cheek.

Neither of them speak, but they move to the treeline together anyway, as if following another song. Maybe they are, Keyleth thinks, a song that only their blood needs to know.

"Do you feel it?" she asks Vex when they finally stop next to a giant willow tree whose roots arc upward to form a sheltered hollow. "All the life, and the colours are so wrong."

"I know, darling," Vex murmurs, brushing past the hanging leaves to sit in the hollow and tugging Keyleth down with her. "I know."

For a moment, Keyleth wonders at the wisdom of it, tales of the hungry, trickster land rising in her memory. But Vex is warm where Keyleth curls into her side, and under the roots she cannot see the odd forever dusk that's drowned the sky. Just roots and branches, leaves and scattered petals, and Keyleth feels safer than she has since they entered the Feywild. When she rests her head on Vex's chest she can hear her heartbeat, a solid warm rush of living flight.

"We never really have time to ourselves anymore, do we?" Keyleth muses. Her fingers are itching to draw patterns in the dirt, to druidcraft the roses and ivy that always overflowed her hands when she gets too anxious, and she grips tight to Vex's tunic to drive the impulse away.

"We don't, do we?" Vex's whole hand sinks easily into the dirt, and comes up with a flower so white Keyleth wonders that it doesn't burn to touch. She tucks it behind Keyleth's ear, and Keyleth can feel Vex's hand shaking as her fingers trail down her jaw, her neck, come to rest over her heart.

"Hi," she whispers, careful about this if nothing else.

Keyleth fits her hand over Vex's, feels how perfectly their fingers fit together. "Hi," she whispers back, and that's all she can say before Vex is kissing her, soft and sweet as her free hand cups Keyleth's cheek. Keyleth can't help but smile as she kisses back, traces the familiar curve of Vex's mouth and sighs happily when Vex's lips part under her own.

"Missed you," Keyleth says when she finally, reluctantly, pulls back. They don't kiss in the mansion, not when Scanlan makes arch comments about locks and Pike finds rose petals in her bed, and maybe it's not safer kissing here under the willow tree but it feels _right._  Vex is still smiling, wicked and caring and everything Keyleth wants, and she thinks they must both feel it, the warm amusement radiating from the tree around them and the sort of recklessness that only comes from knowing nothing else is possible.

"Yeah?" Vex says, and though she's still smiling Keyleth can see the same flicker of doubt from back in her room, and the anger at all of Syngorn flares again.

" _Yes_ ," she says firmly, and cradles Vex's face in her hands to kiss her again, with all the warmth and affection that Vex deserves. Vex's arms wrap around her, and Keyleth relaxes into the embrace just enough to overbalance both of them and send them tumbling to the ground, Keyleth ending up sprawled on top of Vex in what she's sure is the least sexy way possible.

Keyleth groans and rolls off of Vex as fast as she can, throwing an arm over her eyes in embarrassment. "Oh, gods, _Vex_ , I'm sorry, that wasn't meant —"

"It's alright, Keyleth, darling, it's fine, I promise." Vex pulls Keyleth's arm down, the better to kiss the tip of her nose, and even through her embarrassment Keyleth's relieved to see that the doubt is gone from Vex's eyes, replaced with amusement.

Keyleth laughs. "Okay, um. Maybe we can try that again?"

Vex grins and lies back on the soft bed of leaves, opening her arms for Keyleth. "Absolutely, darling. Come here."

Keyleth settles easily into her arms this time, humming with pleasure as she presses her thigh between Vex's legs and Vex tilts her hips up to seal their bodies even tighter together. She kisses her again, slow and careful like maybe here they have all the time that the Material Plane would never grant them, like maybe if she just never stopped kissing Vex, Vex would never have to go back to the city that hurt her.

She loses track of time amidst their kisses, minutes marked only by the sound of their breaths and Vex's small moans whenever Keyleth pulls away to catch her breath. When Vex starts rocking against her thigh more insistently she thinks a moment about making her wait, about drawing out the seemingly endless night longer than should be possible. But Vex works a hand under Keyleth's top, murmurs _please, Keyleth, please,_  against her lips, and Keyleth never has been one to deny Vex what she wants.

"Shh," Keyleth hushes her, more out of habit than anything else as she pushes herself up on one arm and raises her hips just enough to get one hand between their bodies and make quick work of the laces of Vex's breeches. Her skin is hot under Keyleth's hand, and she smiles as she traces circles across Vex's stomach, watching her muscles jump under her light touch and feeling warm desire start to coil through her own belly.

"Keyleth," Vex whines, lifting her hips insistently in search of more of that lovely pressure, "Keyleth, darling, I love you a lot but _please_  fuck me."

They've been doing this for months now, but Keyleth's cheeks still burn at Vex's words even as want flares so brightly within her that all she can manage in response is a strangled moan. She slips her hand into Vex's underclothes, smiles to find her warm and wet.

"Pants — _oh,_ " she breaks off to gasp as Keyleth's fingers brush over her clit "— pants _off,_ darling, please."

Keyleth sits back on her heels, but doesn't move her hand, still teasing lightly over Vex's sex. It's hardly the first time they've had sex outside, and usually she loves being naked there, only the forever sky and Vex's heat to ground her, but the Feywild feels different. _Hungrier_ , and while Keyleth will share Vex gladly with her other lovers she's not sure about sharing her with the land, no matter how much it wants to love them both. "Are you sure?"

"That's what the cloak is for, darling," Vex pants, and Keyleth is still not good at saying no to her. Vex half-bare beneath her is a beautiful sight, though, and there's a hint of satisfaction curling around the edges of Keyleth's mind — her own? the land's? Vex's, through the land? — as she hikes up her skirts and shifts to straddle Vex's thigh.

"Yeah, okay," Keyleth grins, stroking feather-light over Vex's cunt. "Okay, I like this idea, yeah."

"Shit, Keyleth —" Vex starts, but loses the rest of her words in a groan as Keyleth slips one finger, then two inside her. She throws her head back against the leaves, her body arching up under Keyleth's, and Keyleth, too, groans as Vex's leg tenses just right against her cunt, sending a shuddering wave of pleasure through her body.

She had wondered if it would be different, in the Feywild, on the ground with magic blanketing everything they are, but it isn't, not really. It's still Vex's familiar body welcoming her fingers, hot and eager; still Vex's soft voice encouraging her _yes, Keyleth, right there, just like that, fuck, you're perfect_. It's just _more_  like this, Keyleth thinks, tracing stars on Vex's clit with her thumb. _More_ , like everything they are is everything they should be.

Vex is always sensitive, and it's not long before her steady stream of encouraging words turn into just Keyleth's name, and then incoherent moans as Keyleth works her fingers faster, sweeps her thumb in more creative patterns. One particularly hard thrust has Vex arching up into her again, and Keyleth gasps, trying to focus on Vex below her no matter how much she wants to lose herself in just _moving_.

She can see Vex's lips moving, too lost in a haze of pleasure to actually form words, but Keyleth knows what she wants, braces the elbow of her free arm on the ground and slips her hand under Vex's shirt to play with her breasts. A hundred years condense down into a second around them as Keyleth pinches her nipple, and Vex's mouth falls open as she shivers, beautiful and finally silent through her orgasm.

"Oh," Vex pants as she comes down, muscles twitching slightly as Keyleth withdraws her hand. "Oh, aren't you a beautiful sight."

 _Not as beautiful as you,_ Keyleth wants to say, butshe's close, so close already just from watching Vex come, and at any other time she would be embarrassed at how wet she is, how desperately she wants to come just like this. Instead she just stares, worrying her lower lip and pressing her soaked cunt against Vex's thigh and hoping she understands.

"Oh, darling, I know what you want," Vex whispers, settling her hands firmly on Keyleth's hips, finding a rhythm just the perfect side of teasing. "Come for me, Keyleth, good girl —" And she's looking up at Keyleth with such clear eyes, with so much love, that Keyleth can't _not_  obey her, biting down on her hand still damp with evidence of Vex's pleasure to muffle her scream as she comes.

Vex catches her before she can truly fall, and Keyleth leans down for a lazy kiss. "Should we go back?" she asks reluctantly, but she presses her forehead against Vex's and makes no move to get up.

"Mm," Vex hums noncommittally. "They're all asleep, back in the mansion. I think we have a little while before we're missed."

She slides down just enough so she can mouth gently at Keyleth's breasts through the fabric of her top, and Keyleth fervently hopes she's right.


End file.
